tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56282812017-07-23T03:52:34.167-07:00Musings from the Doc . . .I'm Not a Real Doctor, But I Play A Guy With A Nickname On The InternetEriknoreply@blogger.comBlogger768125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-74141508327111133652015-12-12T16:46:00.001-08:002015-12-12T16:46:29.130-08:00Timothy Sandefur on his Brother, Daniel Kaufman
My friend, Timothy Sandefur, wrote this tribute to his brother, who died in the San Bernardino shootings.
I did not know Daniel well at all. Many of my friends did. The Venn diagram of his and my circles of friends overlapped in a lot of places. All our mutual friends have described the same funny, friendly, compassionate person Tim does.
I do know Tim. And while it may seem weird toEriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-87339040574397676382015-09-12T22:19:00.003-07:002015-09-12T22:23:21.711-07:00Steve Ditko On Flawed Superheroes
This video includes a message from Steve Ditko. Steve Ditko was the co-creator of Spider-man. He was also a very firm Objecivist, and created superheros who exemplified Objectivist principles.
In this video, he explains a bit about his philosophies about art, and how art should create heroes who can be looked up to.
I can't find a complete transcript anywhere online, but a chunk of the Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-35780855605993121182014-03-15T14:23:00.003-07:002014-03-15T14:25:34.080-07:00A Quick Lesson On How To Not Like Something.You know what I have zero interest in?
Zombies.
I'll probably never watch another zombie movie in my life.
You know what would be a rather silly direction to go with that particular feeling?
Something like: "No one should ever make another zombie movie ever again because now that I'm tired of zombies, everyone should be tired of zombies."
Dear internet: feel free to bookmark this post to Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-14861878234999971682013-12-21T17:41:00.002-08:002013-12-21T17:41:49.000-08:00On the idea that Evil is more honest than GoodA while ago, I posted about clouds. And with that post about clouds, there was a quote from C S Lewis, a quote about how we're often led to believe that we should dismiss things that make us feel joy as being fluffy and sentimental, while negative experiences that make us feel unsettled or fearful or depressed are "the way things really are."
I want to talk about a related idea, which is this:Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-88887684629200715382013-10-12T08:05:00.003-07:002013-10-12T16:37:09.774-07:00The Dragon and the Princess - A Counting Book - Now on Kickstarter!
Hey, folks!
So, Logan Uber, my brother-in-law, has a publishing company. And recently he had good success with an alphabet book he published, S is for Ska: A Musical Alphabet Book by Geoff Munn, author of the comic Kiosk Life in Neutral.
The book had good success, so Logan wanted to see if he could repeat it with a counting book. He recruited me to write the thing, and Mina Sanwald, an Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-50997745146557321732013-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:002013-10-01T06:56:21.672-07:00Logical Fallacy of the Day
Logical fallacy of the day: "If someone doesn't agree with the way you want to solve a problem, they don't care about the problem."
Example: You work in the birth unit of a hospital, and you and a co worker realize that every night, rats are running around in the nursery. Some have even made it into the bassinets with the babies.
That evening, you discover that, to solve the problem, your Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-81632649974011955792013-05-01T07:52:00.001-07:002013-05-01T07:53:51.924-07:00New Short Story Available! - "Cuddly Furballs of Contment"My new short story, "Cuddly Furballs of Contentment" is available online, for free, right now, thanks to the fine folks at Interstellar Fiction.
Which means you now have something to do for the next twenty minutes.
Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-19572727310147668292013-03-09T21:41:00.001-08:002013-03-09T21:44:00.086-08:00The Only Thing Wrong With Free Comic Book Day (And How To Fix It)Free Comic Book Day is great.
If you haven't heard of it, it's a once a year celebration of all things comics, when a bunch of comic book stores give a way a bunch of free comic books. And some comic book stores go all out, hosting massive events with costumes, comic book creators, and other fun stuff. My local comic book shop, 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, goes all out. Here's a Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-84960856693716488152013-02-21T22:26:00.001-08:002013-02-21T22:29:31.145-08:00More Great News!I have more great news!
You're probably sick of seeing people who disagree with you here on the internet.
Well, guess what? Now, thanks to anti-bullying measures, you can do something about it!
All you have to do is label the person who you're opposed to as either hateful or a bully. Then, you can go rally up a bunch of people who hate that person and go try to intimidate them off the Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-11422830404843162022013-02-09T22:14:00.001-08:002013-02-09T22:20:37.696-08:00Well, It's Been A Long Time Coming . . .Well, I know this has been a long wait, but I have good news!
As of 3:40 pm this afternoon, we officially reached the point where, as a society, it is completely acceptable to completely extrapolate every single attribute of a person based solely on one viewpoint we may have heard that they have.
Prior to 3:40 pm this afternoon, there was one hold out--an old guy who still thought that people Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-56455718440062960092013-01-30T04:12:00.001-08:002013-01-30T04:12:20.429-08:00On Right and WrongNot everything is a moral issue.
It absolutely not a matter of right and wrong whether that girl with the long, pretty hair wears her hair up or down, for example.
If you make everything that is slightly different than what you would have done out to be a crime, you are, in fact, being evil.
Because while not everything is a moral issue, this is.Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-12861353227669993992012-03-16T09:01:00.000-07:002012-03-16T09:13:28.889-07:00How to be a "Wise Reader"So, your friend who's dying to become a writer has shoved a manuscript in your hand and asked you to read it for them. How hard can that be, right? You've done this a lot before. You've done it in school, you love to read books in your free time. And you're very opinionated.
Well, reading for an author who wants feedback is a little different than reading for fun or reading for school. WhenEriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-3366020110961018662011-10-13T05:49:00.000-07:002011-10-13T07:02:23.825-07:00Thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street ProtestsWhen you come across some poor, unfortunate rich person who seems to be very, very upset that they do not pay enough taxes, send them here. It's a link to the address where anyone can send extra money to the US Government. And, unlike regular tax payments, they even let you have a say in where the money gets used.So give them this address. Then hang around, anxiously waiting to see whether or notEriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-34717524613966921872011-04-29T21:15:00.001-07:002011-04-29T21:33:45.693-07:00Regarding the Birth CertificateAll this talk about the birth certificate is so frustrating to me.Listen, everyone who is mad that Obama "had" to show his birth certificate:You know how you think it's all those right wing talk radio nuts who wanted him to show it? That they wouldn't shut up about it? How the President, in his speech, said people were talking about it instead of real issues?I listen to a lot of right-wing talk Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-79222095752761920982011-01-23T23:44:00.000-08:002011-01-23T23:53:54.490-08:00Writing as Magic. Or Just A Joke.Note: I wrote this article for a writer's group I'm in, but thought I'd share it here, too. Click the post title for the full text.My 8 year old daughter made up a knock-knock joke a couple of weeks ago using some of her spelling words. It goes like this:Emma: Knock KnockYou: Who's there?Emma: (Very seriously) Never forget.You: Never forget who? Emma: (Shrugs) Eh, I forgot.Scientists have Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-32913847853878869582009-11-25T19:35:00.000-08:002009-11-25T19:46:39.357-08:00Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln Coming Back to DisneylandText of the speech Lincoln gives:The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning embattlements, our bristling sea coasts. These are not our reliance Eriknoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-7612210812766477402009-08-15T13:55:00.000-07:002009-08-15T14:10:15.186-07:00I Like CloudsYeah. Like the title says.It's probably my favorite part of the airplane ride--the part where you're up over the clouds, the sky pure blue, the clouds pure white and airy like brushing across the down of a swan.For me, it puts life in perspective.And having clouds put life in perspective reminds me of this quote from The Screwtape Letters.The Screwtape Letters is a book C.S. Lewis (The Narnia guyEriknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-9987246894193957952009-03-07T06:52:00.001-08:002009-03-07T06:52:16.959-08:00Everything is Amazing, and Nobody's HappyEriknoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-9401310794246880072009-01-31T20:22:00.000-08:002009-01-31T20:28:43.384-08:00If You Watch The Super Bowl, Do Me A FavorOkay, so pretty much everybody in North America is going to be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow. And of course, it's the one show where, in 2009, nobody is going to fast forward through the commercials.So I want everybody's opinion on one spot: the G.I.Joe ad. The new G.I.Joe movie is coming out this year, and this weekend is the first time they've released any moving pictures from the movie. Eriknoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-38427575689714769412009-01-16T06:23:00.000-08:002009-01-16T06:38:45.800-08:00Is Ancient Art Like Special Effects?Last night, my oldest daughter and I did a Daddy/Daughter date and went to the art museum at Cal State San Bernardino. They had a great display called Excavating Egypt, which I guess isn't their normal Egypt display, but was a lot of fun.Among the things we saw was this mummy mask:And it made me wonder.See, this thing is even more cross-eyed in real life. And one eye bulges out farther than the Eriknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-23597601048838737052008-11-27T07:35:00.000-08:002008-11-27T07:37:34.033-08:00Saying ThanksThis Thanksgiving, Snopes.com reminds us that it's easy and free to send a thank you card to a soldier.Eriknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-24209212786279673972008-11-26T18:17:00.000-08:002008-11-26T18:18:19.278-08:00Dave Barry's Annual Gift Guide: 2008Dave Barry helps you find that gift you'd have never thought of on your own.Eriknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-35952652533273983372008-10-17T09:23:00.000-07:002008-10-17T09:37:50.670-07:00Disney's New Design for California AdventureOkay, full disclosure. I've never been to California Adventure.But I haven't heard wonderful things about it. Some of the rides are apparently really good, but the park itself--well, people felt it was missing something. Roy Disney seemed really down on it, and that's enough for me.So now, Disney has unveiled its plan for how to fix the park.Here's their diagnosis and their treatment of the Eriknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-51664007892569079092008-10-08T11:39:00.000-07:002008-10-08T12:12:46.549-07:00New Weird Al Song "Whatever You Like" on iTunesPretty much what the title said.The new Weird Al Yankovic single is out on iTunes.It's called "Whatever You Like," and it's a parody of a song called "Whatever You Like." by T.I.Yeah, I've never heard of it either. Man, I'm getting old.Anyways, the new song is on iTunes here: And if you're interested, the song he's doing the parody of is on iTunes here:(Like I said, haven't heard the song, but Eriknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628281.post-8864171453034073962008-09-04T07:22:00.000-07:002008-09-04T07:49:08.597-07:00Food From The Hood: Salad Dressing that Does Something Amazon.com WidgetsBack when I was going to school at Cal Poly Pomona for my degree in Business Management, one of my instructors introduced me to a little company he served as an advisor to.Food From the Hood.Food From the Hood was started back in 1992 when some teachers and students at Crenshaw High School ripped out some of the weeds on the campus and started planting a garden. The business Eriknoreply@blogger.com1